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Instituto de Investigaciones sobre los Recursos Naturales. Maestría en Ciencias en Ecología Integrativa The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis plays a central role in the expression and modulation of the stress response in vertebrates. Previous studies have shown that corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH), through its CRHR1 receptor, modulates some of the deleterious effects of stress on dendrite, spine and synapse formation during early stages of life. Recent results from our group have documented that artificial incubation of Lepidochelys olivacea sea turtle embryos leads to over-activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis and morphological alterations in a brain area homologous to the mammalian hippocampus (dorsomedial cortex). In this context, the objective of the present work was to evaluate the effect of artificial incubation in L. olivacea turtle hatchlings on CRH presence in the brain areas that secrete it: the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (HPV) and the dorsal and dorsomedial cortices. Morphometric parameters (body mass, body length and adrenal mass) were evaluated to document HPA axis over-activation in hatchlings incubated in artificial nests (AN). The results show that turtles incubated in AN had a lower body mass (t=5.5843, p